Sea Witch
by elisesdean
Summary: Regina's mother cursed her to live under the sea. She had lived a solitary, secluded life until the sea princess Emma sought her out.


****I decided to upload all the finished one-shots I had in my folders in gratitude for being such great friends and reviewers while I go on a (possibly very long hiatus).****

**Anonymous asked you: Regina is cursed to for ever live beneath the waves, her legs turned into octopus tentacles, can a certain blonde mermaid Emma cheer her up?**

**AN: Yes, I do use/mention (a couple of) the names of the Street Sharks for Emma's guards. No. I have no regrets.**

Emma had grown up her whole life wanting legs, wanting to be free. She was the one and only daughter of the King and Queen. She always figured that women from above were free from reprimanding fathers; that they stood up for themselves and knew what things were and how they worked.

She wanted to be like that. Mostly she just wanted to escape her parents' presence. She wanted to fee like she wasn't constantly being watched, being guarded. She knew the dangers of the oceans, but that didn't mean that she needed to hole up in the castle. She'd narrowly escaped the confines of the club she'd been known to go to and stayed hidden in the shadows as her security sharks went out looking for her. She could have sworn that Jab actually did see her, but let her go free. Had it been Ripster, she would have been brought back home and shoved in her room before she could have spoken a word.

Finally she was on her own. What to do now?

She knew exactly what she wanted to do. She knew it would be the biggest adventure of her life. She just wasn't sure if it would be the last adventure of her life. The sea witch was one that hated everyone else. She'd been cursed from above, but that meant she had all the answers Emma was looking for.

~0~0~0~0~0~

"No! Mother, please!" Regina cried as she threw her body over Daniel. They were on the dock in the midnight hour. Daniel was going to take Regina away and Cora couldn't have her daughter run away from her even if she could lie and say that she sent her on her own path. And she knew that Daniel wasn't going to get out of there alive unless Regina did something. "Take me instead." She tried. It was a long shot, but maybe if Cora actually did send her somewhere, it would be acceptable. "I know I'm only a burden when I'm not a disappointment to you. Take me, do what you want with me, just… let him go free."

Cora stared down at her daughter. It was quite the offer. She wouldn't have to hide from embarrassment of her daughter running from her. She could just send her off to become enlightened. "Very well." She snapped her fingers.

Regina felt her body changing, she looked down to see a tentacle flop from her body and bounce against the deck, "What? What are you doing? Mother?!" Another one came and another. Soon enough her dress shredded and her clothes were replaced with a slimy disgusting kind of skin. "Daniel? Daniel?!" She cried, scared for what was happening to her.

Daniel couldn't bring himself to do anything but stare on.

"It's no use Regina. Your lover boy can't save you now. You asked for this. You are now cursed to the sea, never to return to land again lest some act of grand design wants it. And let's be honest dear, what fate would choose you?"

~0~0~0~0~0~

Daniel searched for her for well over six months before Regina decided to surface. Her skin had turned a blue-green and her eyes had grown cold. Her hair had become unmanageable in the merciless depths and she'd cut it to her shoulders. As she let her many tentacles carry her up the ship's side to her former stable boy, she let hope fill her heart.

"Daniel?"

"Hello Regina." Daniel stared blankly at her.

"That's all you have to say after all this time? You were searching for me, I saw you looking for me…"

"Aye, he was doing that for me, lass." Another man, a scruffy man came into Regina's line of sight.

"See? I told you she was real." Daniel turned to this other man.

"Yes you did…"

"Daniel… what?"

"Oh… Sorry love, allow me to explain. His heart's been taken from him. Now, before you get all emotional, as women do, we've got it back, but he just doesn't care about it."

"Daniel please! Put your heart back in!"

"Oh he did. He just doesn't care about it." The scruffy man said. He smiled and stuck his hand out and Regina took it for no other reason than to be polite, "Name's Hook. Captain Hook. And I'll be capturing you and turning you in for a sizeable amount of money."

Regina yanked her hand from the man's and jumped off the side. As soon as she was in the water, she inked up a sizable cloud and narrowly escaped harpoons and nets thrown in after her. In fact one harpoon did go straight through her arm.

~0~0~0~0~0~

Regina stared at the nasty scar on her arm as she sat in the palace she'd angrily commandeered for herself years before. She'd kept to herself after that, kept to the dark depths of the ocean floor. She hadn't changed much, her hair never grew, but it did become bothersome; she'd crafted a clip that kept it all in a nice, flowy row down the center of her head making it look like a fohawk.

She made the mistake of helping one family just after she'd taken the castle. She made the mistake of using her small amount of magic in order to help them and mer-people had been coming to her ever since.

"Whatever it is you want, I'm not interested." Regina said, not looking to the doorway that she knew the mermaid was hiding. "I don't help people, I don't like people, I don't have magic, not any of use anyway." Lying was easiest. It kept people away from her.

Regina stood and crawled down the throne steps, "Well come out, child. I won't hurt you either. If it's a dare to come see the sea witch, then come. See."

"I'm not a child." Emma finally found her voice and came forward.

As soon as Regina laid eyes on her, she felt a stirring she'd long since assumed had disappeared.

Emma tilted her head, "You're nothing like I've heard."

"And what have you heard?"

"That you're a fat, ugly evil sea witch. But you're not fat and you're certainly not ugly. You don't seem evil. And apparently you don't have useful magic, which doesn't really make you a witch, does it?"

"Why've you come?"

"I wanted to…meet you."

"Why?"

"You sounded interesting."

"I sounded evil."

Emma shrugged, "Something told me it was wrong. I think I'm right."

"You're in the wrong part of town, princess. You need to get home before it really gets dark out. You know it's bad news from here to your precious kingdom after the light's gone."

"Yeah.." Emma smirked, "You're not evil at all."

"And what makes you so sure?" Regina challenged her.

"You care about my well-being." Emma pushed passed her to look around, "How did you know I was the princess?"

"..Lucky guess." Regina coughed.

Emma realized her mistake, "You didn't know I was the princess…"

"I do now." Regina eyed her, "Why are you here?"

"Why are you?" Emma asked casually, "I heard you used to be human. Is that at least true?"

Regina turned and swam back to her throne, "It was a long time ago."

"What's it like?"

Regina didn't answer at first; she tried to figure out if this princess was for real. She looked around in thought, "Warm." It was the only word she had. And for some reason, she felt compelled to tell the truth to this girl. She would have normally scared the mermaid off at this point, but there was something about this princess…

"Warm…?"

"There are cold people and cold places, but… it's warm."

"So why did you come here?"

"It wasn't a choice." Regina rolled her eyes.

"Oh…" Emma pursed her lips. She should have known that one. If she had a choice she wouldn't pick here either, "So, are all humans blue and green? The pictures I've seen their not…"

"The pictures you've—And just where have you found pictures?"

"All over. There are always pictures in ships that sink. There's lots of things in ships that sink."

"Oh?"

"Yeah. I've probably collected everything that humans have."

"Why?"

Emma shrugged, "I don't know, I've always been fascinated with humans. I want to be one, I think. I want to be free."

Regina stared at the blonde, "…You think humans are free?"

"Well yeah… aren't they?"

"No."

"Well, I'll bet they're freer than I'll ever be. I'll bet that they're not under constant surveillance and they can do as they please."

"I couldn't. I tried and I was cursed here by my own mother. You sure you want to be human?"

"…Your own mother?" Emma swam forward, but Regina moved faster.

She pushed from the floor and swam up and away, "You should leave before it gets too late."

"I'd rather not. If it's all the same."

Regina stared at the blonde as she came back down. She wanted to shove her out her cove, but she couldn't. She instead waved her arm, "Bedrooms are this way."

~0~0~0~0~0~

Regina woke the princess up early and brought her back to her own castle herself. She was thanked by the king and queen about 20 times each before they turned to Emma to scold her and she moved quickly out of their kingdom and back to her solace. Or so she thought.

She felt presence as soon as she sat down in her chair.

"Geez. Is all you do mope in that throne?" Emma asked as she swam carefree into the depths of Regina's castle, "You need to get out in the ocean, go to a club, make some friends, do something…"

"No." Regina shook her head, "Go back home. How did you escape your four body sharks?"

"I have my ways." Emma smirked coyly, "Seriously, you need to get out. How long have you lived like this?"

"That's none of your business."

"Guessing by my own timeline of rumblings of something happening over here and the first mentions of a sea witch, I'm going to say that you've been down here a whole decade. You've been here for 10 years and done nothing?"

"I've tried to go home. I can't. So I'm taking my punishment and biding my time until my mother remembers I'm down here."

"No offense, but your mother sounds like a real piece of work; I just don't see her 'remembering' any time soon."

Regina's automatic reaction was to throw a fireball, but that quickly fizzled as soon as it left her hand.

"Whoa! What was that?"

"A fireball."

"Fire? I've always wanted to know what it was. Can you do it again?"

"Princess, had we not been underwater, you would be suffering from burns and probably dying right now…"

Emma shrugged, "Well we are underwater. Please make the fire again. I want to see it again."

Regina sighed. She placed her hands about a foot apart and made a large fireball.

Emma swam close, "Can I touch it."

"You'll get hurt."

"I don't care."

"It might hurt worse than a jellyfish or stingray…"

This only prompted Emma to test that theory. She shoved her hand in the fireball and quickly pulled it out waving it around the cold depths, "Son of a puffer!" Emma cried before holding her hand close.

Regina raised her brows only slightly before she diminished the fire and took Emma's hand, instantly healing the burn, "For a princess, you have a mouth on you. Son of a puffer? Where did you learn that?"

"Just because I'm a princess doesn't mean I don't know all the bad words. Doesn't mean I don't use them…"

"Really?"

"Really."

Regina nodded. "There." She took her hand off of Emma's, "All better."

"I thought you said your magic was useless."

"You should be home."

"I don't want to be home. I want to be here with you."

Regina shook her head. "Your parents are not going to like me if I let you stay."

"Do you want them to like you?"

"Of course not, I…" Regina shook her head, "I just want to be alone."

Emma swam so she was only inches from Regina, "See, you say that, but I don't think it's true. I think I'm the first person in a long time that's calling your bluff."

~0~0~0~0~0~

Emma sat inches from and angry, sorrowful Regina laying on her bed, "I'm sorry, I didn't know." She traced the scar on the witch's arm that she'd made the mistake of asking about, "You didn't have to tell me, but I'm glad you did. I'm glad you're telling me stuff about you." She sighed, "Especially since you know every boring thing about me…" She let her hand travel gracefully down Regina's arm to her side, over her hindquarters and down the side of a tentacle.

At this, Regina flinched.

Emma jumped herself, "What was…" the princess stared into Regina's eyes, "Are you ticklish?"

"No."

"That's you're lying voice."

"It's my regular voice." Regina stiffened.

"Which is your lying voice. You're ticklish." Emma let her hands move to Regina's tentacles.

"No stop!" Regina tried to squirm away, "Emma!" She tried once more, but Emma was determined until… Regina inked.

Emma coughed and swan from the cloud.

"You made me ink!" Regina swam to the opposite side of her bedroom.

"I'm sorry." Emma tried to hold in her laughter.

"It's not funny." Regina turned from her, "If anything it's embarrassing."

"You don't need to be embarrassed around me."

"Oh? Why's that?"

"Because while I might get a chuckle from your being embarrassed, I'm not going to abandon you."

"Oh you have me all figured out? I have abandonment issues and you're here to save the day, is that it?"

"Yes, Regina that's it exactly." Emma swam closer.

"Why?"

"Because I care for you." Emma was clearly nervous, but she pressed on, "I care for you so much I might even be in complete and total love with you."

Regina stared at the blonde princess, "You did not just say that."

"No." A deep voice boomed, "You didn't."

"Daddy?"

"Come along, Emma. Your presence is expected at the ball tonight. You need to get ready."

"I told you I wasn't going unless Regina could attend."

"And now I see why you're so adamant." He glared to the brunette, "When you first started taking her home I thought you kind to our family for trying to quell our rebellious daughter. Now I see it was personal gain."

"No… I…"

"Silence, Witch." The king held his triton up by way of intimidation, "Come along Emma."

"But, Daddy—"

"_Come_ _along_, Emma."

"No."

The king turned to his daughter, "Excuse me?"

"I won't go."

"You will obey me—"

"I will fight for love."

"You don't know what love is."

"You've never let me. But then I snuck away from the castle, away from you and look what I found!"

"A no good sea witch that pillaged the tenants of this castle until she got it for herself!"

"A good, kind _human being_ that was cursed to live a life she didn't want by her own parents!"

The king reared back. Emma's fighting words hit him where it hurt. He turned, "If you want to stay here, then stay here, but don't expect to find a home in our kingdom when this goes sour."

~0~0~0~0~0~

There was a loud knocking on the doors of the castle that Regina rarely shut. But that evening she shut them. She shut them to protect Emma. She swam to the doors and looked through a peephole she'd created to see who was on the other side.

She quickly opened the door, "Your majesty!" She reached for the queen's arm and pulled her inside quickly, "It's dangerous out there this time of night… Did you travel here alone?"

"Yes. I wanted to apologize for my husband's rash behavior. He's charming, but he's overbearing when it comes to our daughter. I don't know how many times I've told him that if he pushes her too far, she'll not come back." She shook her head, "I've come to bring Emma home."

"I wouldn't advise it, not at this late hour."

"Please." Snow put a hand up, "I'm the Queen."

"Forgive my frankness your majesty but the creatures that lurk around these parts don't give a swimming fuck who you are. Stay the night. I insist. You and your daughter can take my room. She's there now."

"And how long have you been sharing a bed?" Snow asked the sea witch.

Regina jutted her jaw to the side, "I'm not sure it's any of your business, but we haven't." She led the woman to her room.

"Really?"

"You seem shocked that your daughter hasn't bedded me."

Snow looked down, shameful, "I've raised my daughter the best I can. But she's got a…voracious appetite." She pushed passed the other woman and swam into the bedroom, "Emma."

"Mommy?"

"Mommy? Since when am I 'Mommy'?"

"Since Daddy disowned me."

"Oh, so this is your way of getting back into the castle unscathed." Snow treaded her way over to her daughter and sat on the bed.

"No… I'm not going back to the castle. Not unless Regina is welcome."

Snow turned back to see Regina was not in the room. She blocked her daughter's view. "Of course."

Emma squirmed, straining to see the other side of the room, excited that Regina would get to come with her. When she saw Regina wasn't there she panicked, "Regina?"

"Emma, darling… Let her be."

"Regina?!" Emma pulled from her mother and swam looking for the sea witch, "Regina!" She swam into the main foyer, where Regina's throne was to find the sea witch sitting, looking more closed off than she had ever seen her before. "What's wrong? My mom said that you could come to the castle…"

"I'm not sure that would be best." Regina turned from her.

Emma, not caring that her mother was watching from the top of the foyer stairs, swam close to Regina, putting her arms around her and sitting over the woman's tentacles.

Regina though, quickly pushed the mermaid away, and when Emma tried to hug her once more, she held her back with a couple tentacles.

Emma, now hopeless, tried tickling the sides of the other woman's tentacles.

Regina retracted, "Emma." She scolded.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing!" Regina yelled pushing from her throne moving up in the water quickly. For good measure to make sure Emma didn't follow her, she inked the water significantly, creating a big enough cloud for her to find a hiding place.

~0~0~0~0~0~0~

"Go away." Regina growled from her new perch at the ceiling of her foyer.

Emma didn't go away. She swam through the ink that Regina automatically put out as soon as she got there. "Why are you being like this?" She asked after swimming straight into the other woman.

"I am not a conquest." Regina hissed, getting up in Emma's face before pushing from the ceiling into the cloud ink.

Emma swam straight through the cloud as well. "Who said you were?" she cried after the other woman.

"Your mother seemed to have no qualms with sharing your history."

"My history?"

"Yes, you're other conquests."

Emma looked around and down, feeling the shame she should have felt.

"Guess I didn't know every _boring_ thing about you."

"I didn't want you to know. I felt bad about it. I've never felt drawn to someone… When it happened… when I found that I was drawn to you, I didn't want you to know that I gave everything up because I didn't believe it would happen for me…"

"Not good enough." Regina started swimming once more.

"I know I'm not."

This stopped the sea witch from moving any further.

"And I'll never be good enough for you. That's why I kept my secret. I knew I needed to tell you, but I was more concerned with helping you live before you gave up completely."

"I haven't given up yet."

"You were about to when I first came here. I saw it in your eyes. I saw it in your skin." Emma swam forward a little more, "The blue-green started fading once you started letting me in. It's coming back again."

"Yes, well. Whose fault is that?"

"Mine."

"At least you're not completely unintelligent."

"I'm also not completely unworthy." At the look she received, Emma put her hand up to stop the other woman from interrupting her. "I'm not deserving, but I'm not completely unworthy. I can make you feel something besides cold. You know I can. So let me make you feel something that's not cold."

~0~0~0~0~0~

Emma walked along the beach. She was a big fan of cut off pants now. Regina was a big fan of having two legs again. The brunette was up ahead throwing shells back into the ocean. Emma skipped her way over to her and wrapped her arms around her.

"Everything okay?"

"Yes." Regina snuggled into the woman behind her.

"How are you feeling?"

Regina smiled as she closed her eyes and let the sunbeam down on her, "Warm."

**AN: Hope you enjoyed.**


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